Class ends at 1:45. When I tell you that you can take until 1:50 to finish the exam, but that after that I absolutely must leave, that’s me being nice—see, you get five extra minutes, even though 90% of the class was done by 1:30. When, at 1:50, I give the three of you still present (out of a class of 60) two MORE minutes to finish up, that’s me being a pushover. When, in two minutes, I tell you again that I absolutely had to leave four minutes ago, and you STILL sit there, that’s you being a jerk. When I come over to where you are and demand the exam from you, that’s not me being mean, it’s me being too nice to just leave the room and give you a 0 for not turning the exam in when I said to. So perhaps next time study a little more, and save the scowling and growling for someone who hasn’t just gone out of his way to give you every chance he could to finish an exam that everyone else finished a long time ago.Sincerely,
Your (now very late) Professor
PS: Marking the answers on the question sheet and waiting until later to fill in the bubbles on the scantron is a TERRIBLE test-taking strategy.
PPS: If you have this problem in all of your classes, please see Student Disability Services to see whether you might have a condition that would merit treatment and accommodation. Otherwise, you might try studying a little harder next time.
Many years ago I started walking out at the deadline time. I do it on something low stakes early in the semester. You won't believe how well it works.
ReplyDeleteYoung, untenured, and part=time faculty, however, may find they get a lot more pushback, not just from students, but from their awful superiors who have long since drunk the Student Achievement Kool-Aid.
DeleteOff topic, but the horse and the duck (and the sun, when present) are just plain adorable. It always cheers me up to see them in a picture.
ReplyDeleteBack on topic: I'm with Fab, at least from the student point of view. I can't remember ever being given extra time on a test beyond the end of class. Everyone, including the instructor, had to be somewhere else, and there was usually a new class coming into the room. Just start going around and collecting papers when the time is up.
Yes, Penny. Sometimes when I think of the allowances I make for students that were never made for me, I truly believe I am part of the problem. OF COURSE THEY ASK FOR ALLOWANCES; I give them allowances. I make it harder on the next prof, and she on someone else, and him on an instructor he mentors. And pretty soon it's all just classrooms full of snowflakes
DeleteI, too, love the horse and duck(ling), and the sun. They are, indeed, very cheerful, and thus comforting, and I enjoy finding them. I'm not sure quite what the terrain they're traversing above is supposed to be, but it looks like piles of exams to be graded (after prying them from the hands of reluctant students) to me.
DeleteI don't really have this problem (composition proffie; I rarely give tests), but if I did, I think it would be taken care of to some extent by the flood of impatient incoming students (hey, there's a silver lining to classroom shortages!). Of course I still wouldn't be able to magically appear 10 minutes across campus for my next class, so part of the problem remains.
This makes me feel better. I'm a pushover too. Stuff like this infuriates me.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think the right answer is to say "that's it, I'm leaving" and pack up and leave the room without the exam. Just once and then let the word quietly spread.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I get the impression that students don't really believe we will fail them, or that there can be severe negative consequences. Maybe they've been overtested or underchallenged, I dunno.
Sometimes.